Genres of Shakespeare's Plays

The Taming of the Shrew also influenced by Italian commedia del'arte, which in turn was influenced by Roman comedy. Lots of slapstick, farce, and disguises.

In our own time, Shakespeare's sequential histories are often performed in a cycle. The first four histories (Henry VI 1-3 and Richard III) are often called the first tetralogy*, and the second four (Richard II, Henry IV 1,2, and Henry V) are called the second tetralogy or the Henriad. But the first tetralogy especially may not have been intended as a unified set.

Genres of Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Genre

Components of Elizabethan Comedy

Revenge Tragedy

Tragedy

Early Comic Influences

Though theatrical genres were still forming in Shakespeare's day, most scholars still place his works within certain genre categories

Roman Comedy - stock characters; involved forbidden love, misunderstandings, disguises, wordplay; farcical; parallel plot threads; conflicts between parents/blocking agents and children/young people*

• Revenger usually high-class
• Government or king too corrupt to provide justice - private vs. public interests
• Revenger must obtain proof
• Feigned madness/disguises
• Supernatural elements
• Extremely violent
• Revenger cannot outlive the act of vengeance
• Meta-theatrical

Classical tragedy - noble or royal character experiences a tragic downfall, usually brought about by a "tragic flaw" (called "hamartia" in Greek)

Playwrights like John Lyly and George Peele combined these elements to create comedies with graceful, highly-structured plots, witty and stylish verse and prose, but slight characterization.

Native Comic Traditions - clowning, bawdy jokes, mime, stage jigs (dancing)

The Big Ones:

• tragedy
• comedy
• history

this helps scholars categorize and discuss the plays with more nuance

Elizabethan tragedy modeled off Seneca's plays

Scholarly Sub-Genres:

• revenge tragedy
• romantic or "festive" comedy
• problem comedy
• tragicomedy
• romance

• long declamations (soliloquy)
• five-act structure
• supernatural elements (esp. ghosts)
• extremely bloody

Many of these plays were written for the royal court and first performed by the early boys' companies.

(this is how the First Folio categorizes Shakespeare's plays)

Shakespeare's Comedy: Romantic vs. "Problem"

Influential Writers and Tragedies

1590s: Comedies written in this period about love and marriage, generally resolve happily, little connection with social realities or satirical commentary --> they are romantic fantasies

Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy; ur-Hamlet?) - most successful adapter of Senecan tragedy; super popular

1600s: Comedies in this decade are more serious, comedy comes from satire, harsher tone, unsatisfying resolutions

Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus; The Jew of Malta) - perfected the blank verse style; striving, flawed protagonists that were more fully-realized

Satire and comedy with social commentary were popular in the early 1600s, and Shakespeare follows the fashion

History Plays

Shakespeare's Histories

A new dramatic genre invented by Elizabethan playwrights which dramatized the history of England, its monarchs, and its noble families.

• Drew on a variety of historical writing for sources: ex: Holinshed's Chronicles
• Mixes other genres in his history plays (Richard II and Richard III are also called tragedies)
• Could be dangerous to depict rebellions and the fall of annointed monarchs!
• Lots of poetic license
• And lots of characters!
• Aspects of providentialism - a belief that God punished the ruler (and country?) for past sins

Why History? Why Then?

History plays a way for playwrights and audiences to speak to and comprehend past history, current political anxiety, and engage with the "era of crisis and patriotic excitement" in which they lived (David Bevington)

• Patriotic fervor after defeat of Spanish Armada
• Deep interest in English history at all levels of society
• Political chaos of 15th century civil wars still lingered in cultural memory
• This history spoke to their own dynastic uncertainty under Elizabeth

History of History Plays

King John and Henry VIII are stand-alones

*tetralogy = four interrelated literary works

• 1580s: histories featured loosely-connected episodes, were often moralistic, and the poetry basic.
• Christopher Marlowe's Edward II evolves the genre towards greater emphasis on character, coherent dramatic plot, and powerful poetry.
• Shakespeare begins to write histories (with collaborators early on), and the genre blows up. Incredibly popular in the 1590s, and Shakespeare and his company become known for the genre.
• Loses popularity in seventeenth-century,

but several history plays still written

This genre may seem the most unfamiliar (few history plays are assigned in high school, and it's not OUR history), but the history plays remain surprisingly influential in modern culture.

Pop Culture

Political Commentary

Connection to REAL History

Did Shakespeare's play contribute to the rediscovery of Richard III's body? I don't know, but there's a reason the play is being performed at his new burial site...